State aid: Vice-President Verheugen and
Commissioners Kroes and Špidla call for co-ordinated action and full
respect of EU state aid and internal market rules in GM Europe
restructuring

Following recent developments concerning possible national support measures
for the restructuring of GM Europe (including Opel/Vauxhall), Vice-President
Verheugen and Commissioners Kroes and Špidla welcome the efforts
undertaken, but repeat the need for co-ordinated action and full respect of EC
Treaty rules.

The Commissioners for Enterprise and Industry, Competition, Employment and
Social Affairs stress the importance of a coherent and coordinated political
approach towards the European automotive industry, bearing in mind its primary
entrepreneurial responsibility in a social market economy. The Commissioners
recall that all participating Member States in the informal meeting with EU
ministers on the situation of GM on 13 March 2009 (MEMO/09/108)
agreed to ensure that no national measures should be taken without prior
information and coordination with the Commission and other involved countries.
In this context, Vice-President Verheugen and Commissioners Kroes and
Špidla underline that national support measures have to fully comply with
EC Treaty state aid and internal market rules.

In particular, with regard to declarations by various European ministers
concerning the conditions to be attached to possible national support measures
for GM Europe and its potential partners, the three Commissioners recall that
new state aid measures must be notified to the European Commission before their
implementation and cannot be subject to additional conditions contrary to
internal market rules. For instance, state aid aiming to facilitate access to
finance in the current crisis and fulfilling the requirements of the relevant
temporary framework cannot be subject to additional non-commercial conditions
concerning the location of investments and/or the geographic distribution of
restructuring measures. While the EU should aim at keeping as many people as
possible in jobs, national aid measures within this framework must not affect
the freedom of manufacturers to develop their activities in the internal market,
and in particular should not prevent manufacturers from adapting their
production capacities to market developments, in conformity with the applicable
labour law.

The Commissioners also underline that the implementation of necessary
structural reforms is very important to strengthen the automotive industry's
competitiveness and to create the right conditions for sustainable
jobs.